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After a two-year delay, the Gopalganj-Aminbazar 400KV power transmission line finally came into operation crossing the Padma River on Thursday.
The line was commissioned successfully at 1:40pm on Thursday from the Gopalganj grid substation with 400KV voltage, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh (PGCB) said in a Facebook post.
However, PGCB Managing Director Golam Kibria told reporters that although the line has been commissioned, electricity flow will not start just yet.
He said they plan to send electricity from Saturday on a trial basis and then step by step the line from Gopalganj to the Aminbazar grid substation will be fully commissioned by gradually synchronising with all the systems.
PGCB officials say the full commissioning of the newly constructed line will facilitate electricity transmission from the two large power plants — 1320MW one in Payra and 1320MW one in Rampal — in the country’s southern region to Dhaka city.
Of these, the Payra coal-fired plant having two units, each 620MW capacity, set up in a joint venture with a Chinese company, has already been commissioned. The first unit — also of 620MW capacity — of the Rampal plant is also being built in a joint venture with an Indian company and it is expected to be commercially commissioned in March next year.
“If the electricity from these two plants can come to the capital city, it will play an important role to improve the power supply situation,” a senior Power Division official told UNB.
As the line has been successfully charged at 400KV voltage, power transmission (load flow) will be started on this line soon after all technical preparations and evaluations, PGCB said in the Facebook post.
With the new line’s commissioning, the previously constructed Payra-Gopalganj 400KV line and Gopalganj-Mongla 400KV line have also been connected to the Aminbazar substation, on the outskirts of the capital.
This has made the connection to the national grid stronger and more reliable with the greater Khulna and Barishal regions, said the PGCB.
At a glance
The government had undertaken the implementation of the Gopalganj-Aminbazar transmission line, which goes through Mawa, in 2016. It was supposed to come into operation in December 2021.
But the project deadline was extended to December 2022 as the authorities could not finish building the towers to carry the line over the Padma River on time until the completion of the Padma Bridge’s construction.
After it became operational in December 2020, the Payra power plant was unable to generate electricity at full capacity as this transmission line was not completed. With the line becoming operational, the plant is expected to work at full capacity and generate 1,320MW of electricity.
According to PGCB, the newly constructed 82.5-kilometre 400KV transmission line, which has 226 towers in total, has been successfully commissioned and charged.
Of the total length, 7.5 kilometres of the line has gone over the Padma River. Of all the towers, seven have been built in the Padma River and four more on both banks of the river.
The platform of each tower in the Padma has been raised from a depth of 110 metres underground from the riverbed like the Padma Bridge’s pillars. Constructions of the seven platforms were completed in June.
The transmission line’s crossing was completed this month after 126-metre-high towers were erected from each platform. The distance from one tower to another in the river is 830 metres. Around Tk 670 crore has been spent to build these seven platforms and towers under the Padma Bridge project, PGCB officials said.
The 82.5km 400KV double circuit line has also been extended by another 96km to Mongla. The project cost over Tk 2,500 crore. Transmission of 3600MW of electricity will be possible through this line, they said.
